Ruturaj Gaikwad shows promising signs on debut as Chennai Super Kings captain

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) began their title defence on an ideal note on Friday, defeating Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by six wickets in the opening game of the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL).

Friday’s match was an important fixture not just because it kick-started the 17th season following a star-studded opening ceremony but also because it was opening batter Ruturaj Gaikwad’s first match in charge of the ‘Yellow Army’.

It was on the eve of the season opener when CSK announced Gaikwad as their captain , bringing the curtains down on MS Dhoni's glorious reign as skipper in which he led the team to five titles and five runner-up finishes.

Gaikwad would have likely been sweating bullets before the big match even if he maintained a calm demeanour and insisted he wasn’t going to let the nerves get the better of him. The Maharashtra wicketkeeper-batter had proved himself as a leader at the state as well as at the international level, and would’ve been eager to get his reign as CSK skipper off to a positive note.

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More importantly, Gaikwad would have hoped to avoid a repeat of 2022 in which CSK lost their first four matches and six of eight after Dhoni handed the captaincy over to Ravindra Jadeja . Dhoni would eventually take captaincy back from Jadeja in an attempt to salvage CSK’s season but it was too late.

Gaikwad had reason to be more optimistic, given he had led Maharashtra to the Vijay Hazare title in 2022-23 and a second-string Indian team to Asian Games gold in Hangzhou last year. Not everyone bought into the team’s decision to appoint the 27-year-old as MSD’s successor though, with cricketer-turned-commentator Kevin Pietersen questioning whether Gaikwad could really call the shots with Dhoni still part of the dressing room as a player during the pre-match show on Star Sports.

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Those who have followed Indian cricket closely over the past 10 years would have a fair idea that Dhoni remains a leader both on the field as well as in the locker room even if he doesn’t have the ‘C’ next to his name. He had been setting fields for Virat Kohli and mentoring him on on-field plans even after quitting white-ball captaincy for India in January 2017.

So Gaikwad would’ve been expecting something similar this season, where he would be gradually easing into the role and would be assisted by his legendary teammate from time to time, besides receiving inputs from other seniors such as Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane and others.

Gaikwad responds well under pressure

On Friday, Gaikwad did show signs of his ability to read the game and make an impact as captain. Especially when the going got tough.

Gaikwad had been showing no signs of being overawed by the occasion during the opening ceremony as well as during the toss. The youngster, however, was thrown into the deep end almost right away after RCB won the toss and skipper Faf du Plessis opted to bat.

Bengaluru had raced to 37 for no loss after four overs and 31 of those runs had come off the ex-Proteas skipper’s bat, including all eight boundaries up until that point.

Gaikwad, however, would then make his first big move as a skipper by introducing Bangladesh left-arm quick Mustafizur Rahman into the attack and having debutant Rachin Ravindra placed at deep point. Du Plessis had been collecting a majority of his boundaries in front of square on the off side — six of the eight fours that he had collected, to be precise.

Mustafizur is quite lethal when it comes to his variations in pace and induced a wild heave towards sweeper point with a slow, wide delivery. Du Plessis fell into the trap as he went for a wild heave, toe-ending the ball towards the square boundary where Ravindra, quite the agile fielder himself, put in a slide to complete a fine catch and halt RCB’s charge.

‘Fizz’, as he is popularly known, would then remove the out-of-form Rajat Patidar in the same over to complete a double-strike in his first over for the iconic yellow jersey.

The momentum was beginning to shift towards the Super Kings at that point as powerplay specialist Deepak Chahar, who had bled 17 runs in the third over of the innings, was brought back from the other end. The Rajasthan pacer would then have hard-hitting all-rounder Glenn Maxwell caught-behind for a golden duck, and RCB suddenly were three down!

Things would go from bad to worse thereafter as Mustafizur would strike twice once again after being brought back in the 12th over, this time getting rid of both Virat Kohli and Cameron Green in quick succession as RCB slipped to 78/5 in the 12th over, the prospect of reaching 150 suddenly looking like a Herculean task.

Read | Mustafizur's four-fer, Rachin's solid debut and other top moments from CSK vs RCB

Bengaluru would eventually end up with 173 on the board thanks to a late fightback by Anuj Rawat and Dinesh Karthik. However it would still prove to be an under-par score on what was an unusually good batting wicket at Chepauk.

Dhoni certainly was doing his bit in keeping an eye on the field settings and making minor adjustments to angles and positions. But there is little denying the fact that Gaikwad did make an impact with his leadership in what certainly was among the biggest matches of his career so far.

What was an even more pleasant sight was the fact that Gaikwad, one of CSK’s most consistent run-scorers in recent seasons and won the Orange Cap in his third season in 2021, didn’t appear too bogged down by the burden of captaincy.

When he came out to commence Chennai’s 174-run chase — pulling a short ball from Mohammed Siraj towards deep square leg for a boundary for a four off his very first delivery, and collecting another one in the final ball of the over. He was dismissed for a run-a-ball 15, collecting three boundaries along the way, but will be backing himself to deliver a solid performance with the bat as a captain soon enough.

Batting legend and former India captain Sunil Gavaskar was among those impressed with his leadership following Chennai’s comfortable six-wicket win on Friday.

“Your debut as a captain becomes very important. You want to begin your captaincy career well with a win and that’s exactly what happened. What was impressive was his bowling changes. Because when you saw the way he kept on changing Mustafizur; the way he used Mustafizur was absolutely terrific. He kept swapping Deepak Chahar, keeping faith in Tushar Deshpande for that final over.

“So, yes, I think the captaincy was most impressive. And we see over here, he has, of course, MS Dhoni around him, to guide him, tell him and give him the encouragement. Sometimes, that little nod from somebody as experienced and as accomplished as MSD, makes a big difference,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports after the match.

Read | 'Never felt it as an additional pressure': Gaikwad after getting first win as CSK captain

It’s only a small step forward for Gaikwad after his successful outing against CSK’s ‘Cauvery Derby’ rivals, and that certainly is an improvement for the ‘Yellow Army’ compared to how things had panned out at the beginning of the 2022 season . It will be interesting to see if the wicketkeeper-batter is able to maintain this for an entire IPL season. That’s when we’ll know what Gaikwad the leader is truly made of.